Hugo Barra, director of Android product management, made the announcement during the opening of the event.

Phones have been the traditional giveaways in the previous Google I/O events and today’s surprise confirmed one thing: Google’s current priority is Android and they want developers to get engaged with it.

Samsung succeeded in penetrating the tablet market with the Android powered Galaxy Tab, but it has still a long way to go in toppling down its competitors.

Aside from this superb giveaway, Google also released Android 3.1 during the conference.